Off the Beaten Path - Gopher Hole Museum - Alberta, Canada

Planning a vacation to beautiful Alberta?  Where else can you take a bunch of dead animals, stuff them, dress them up like the local town folk and call it a museum. Well, you are starting at the right place! In Torrington they did just that. Every year since 1996 when they set up permanent residence at 208 1 Street South, thousands of tourists have stopped by Torrington annually to marvel at this little oddball museum filled with Stuffed Gophers.  

The museum is filled with stuffed gophers posed and dressed in little “Dioramas”.  Torrington seems to have a love-hate relationship with gophers. These little critters destroy the local crops but because of the museum they bring in the tourist dollar from all around to a town that would literally see almost no tourists. The museum itself is about the size of a large trailer and has around 40 different exhibits of stuffed gophers. The taxidermy is done quite nicely as well as the paint job for the sets. There is a fat book of newspaper clippings of the museum and a guest book with people from literally all over the world. The gift shop is quite lackluster but the idea of the museum makes some of the souvenirs interesting. Entrance to the museum is $2 for adults. The town fire hydrants are painted as gophers and there is also a 12 foot high statue of a gopher named Clem T. GoFur.

Torrington is located about an hour north of Calgary. It is 30 km east of Highway 2 on Highway 27. The museum is quite easy to find in Torrington because of all the signs. 

While you're in Torrington visiting the gophers, you may wish to stick around for a few days. The surrounding area provides other opportunities for adventure and entertainment. Beyond the gophers, you might also enjoy Banff National Park and Jasper National Park…the Rocky Mountains to the west are breathtaking! Meanwhile, Calgary is a world-class city and home of the world-famous Calgary Stampede. Further north, the capital city Edmonton is surely worth a visit as is the giant Ukrainian Easter Egg (Pysanka) in Vegreville! There is no shortage of great attractions in this beautiful and fascinating province of Canada.

Check it out. I think that most people miss it! Don't be one of these!

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